Our main reason for traveling to Edmonton this past weekend was to attend a very large family reunion for my father's side of our family. The Friday evening event was for the "Mundare" family - the location where one of the original siblings set up his business and home, my dad's dad. My dad comes from a family of ten siblings and we grew up attending many family events. I have lots of fun and fond memories of times spent with my many cousins (photo of first cousins who were able to attend is below). Many of them attended on Friday night and it was great to catch up and find out how they were doing. It was also great to see all my aunts and uncles - I don't get to see them very often anymore. It is a good feeling to feel so connected to such a large family!
Adam helped put together a slide show of over 150 photos of my dad's family, some dating back 100 years! This photo is of my grandparents.
The Saturday event, at the same hall, was for all the relatives of all the siblings of the orginial Nowakowsky family. These siblings had all settled in different small communities in northern Alberta. Most of the 150+ people I didn't really know but knew their names and some of their stories.
This photo is just of my dad's (Mundare) family and there was a big photo like this for each family grouping.
The boys busied themselves outdoors with their cousins and other relatives they met for the first time. We enjoyed eating Ukrainian food, hearing stories about family members, learning more about our family history, seeing lots of photos and other family artifacts, and buying some of my Great Aunt Barbara's pysanky for the boys.
The older I get, the more I feel the importance of family history and making sure the stories stay alive. And some photos only help to illustrate the stories!
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